THEDA BARA

'Theda Bara' was the stage name of 'Theodosia Burr Goodman' (July 29, 1885 – April 13, 1955), an American silent film actress. Movie executives made promotional claims that her stage name was chosen because it is an anagram for "Arab Death." In reality, "Theda" was a childhood nickname for Theodosia. "Bara" was a shortened form of her maternal grandfather's last name, Baranger.
Bara was one of the most popular screen actresses of her era, and was one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" (short for vampire). The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman. Bara, along with the French film actress Musidora, popularized the vamp persona in the early years of silent film and was soon imitated by rival actresses such as Nita Naldi and Pola Negri.

Contents

Biography

Birth

Education

Career

Sex symbol

Marriage and retirement

Death

Legacy

Filmography

Footnotes

References

External links

Biography

Birth

Theodosia Burr Goodman was born in 1885 in the Avondale section of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father was Harris Goodman (1853-?) a prosperous Jewish tailor born in Poland . Her mother, Pauline DeCoppett (1861-1957), was born in Switzerland and was also Jewish. They married in 1882. Theda's brother and sister were Marque (1888-?) and Lori [originally Estie] (1897-?). In 1917, all changed their names to "Bara".

Education

She attended Walnut Hills High School from 1899 to 1903 and lived at 823 Hutchins Avenue. After attending the University of Cincinnati for two years, she worked in theater productions mainly but did explore other projects, moving to New York City in 1908. She made her Broadway debut in ''The Devil'' (1908).

Career

Theda Bara made more than 40 feature films between 1914 and 1926. Complete prints of only six of these films still exist. Most of Bara's films were produced by William Fox, beginning with ''A Fool There Was'' in 1914 and ending with ''The Lure of Ambition'' in 1919. The phenonmenal success of ''A Fool There Was'' gave William Fox the money to found '' by David W. Menefee.Albany: Bear Manor Media, 2007. ISBN 0-275-98259-9.

★ Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara, Eve Golden, , , Emprise, 1996, ISBN 1-887322-00-0

★ ''Famous Juliets.'' By Jerome Hart in Motion Picture Classic, March, 1923.

★ ''A Million and One Nights.'' By Terry Ramsaye. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1926.

External links

★

★ Excerpt from Golden's biography ''Vamp''

★ Biography at monash.edu.au

★ Theda Bara photo galleries at SilentLadies.com

★ Fan page

★ Theda Bara at Find A Grave